MIDDLE EAST, NORTH AFRICA Tensions Between Anti-ISIS Allies in the Valley

OE Watch Commentary: According to local reports from eastern , tensions are on the rise between the US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic “…likely ethnic, tribal and political Forces (SDF), on the one hand, and the Syrian Elite Forces (SEF), the armed complications in the coming stage among wing of the Saudi and UAE-backed Syria’s Tomorrow Movement, on the other. Although nominal allies against ISIS, the groups have had fraught relations Washington’s allies east of the Euphrates…” since the Battle of last year. With ISIS nearly eliminated from eastern Source: Syria and local factions reassessing the strategic landscape, the accompanying  تصريح حول االحداث التي حصلت في قرية أبو حمام في ريف دير الزور excerpted articles and statements explain how competition for control on the “Statements Regarding Events in Abu Hammam Village in ground is likely to intensify in this strategically delicate region. Rural Deir Ezzor,” SDF Website, 4 May 2018. https://goo. gl/8AP8UT The latest tensions revolve around what, under different circumstances, might have remained a local affair: an argument and shootout in the village of Yesterday 3 May 2018, SDF forces received information Abu Hammam between a patrol from the SDF and an armed group linked to from residents of Abu Hammam village of a group of thieves the SEF. Abu Hammam is part of the Shaitat tribal areas and is located along and weapons dealers in the area. Based on this a patrol was the Euphrates River Valley, about halfway between the city of Deir Ezzor and dispatched to the village to investigate. When it arrived to the Syria-Iraq border. It was the site of one of the Syrian conflict’s bloodiest the village entrance it was fired upon and responded, with single events, the 2014 massacre of hundreds of males at the hands of ISIS one of the patrol members injured. The patrol retreated fighters. Divisions and resentments are acute, given that many ISIS members and the next morning at 0530 a larger patrol was deployed were residents of nearby communities. to arrest five of the gang members who had fired. They appear to have used the name of the Syria Elite Forces The SDF’s version of events, excerpted in the accompanying official (SEF) in their weapons dealing and theft… We in the Syrian statement, holds that local residents called in a group of troublemakers, Democratic Forces (SDF) assert that there is no reason accusing them of stealing and selling weapons. The SDF patrol sent for us to target the Syrian Elite Forces (SEF)… We also to investigate came under fire from a group labelled as an example of call on leaders of the SEF to follow up on cases in which “irresponsible factions” who use the SEF name, but whose true aim is “to their name is used by irresponsible factions whose aim is create strife and instability in the area.” Whenever asked by local residents, the to create strife and instability in the area, especially given statement adds, the SDF will “act against those who carry out illicit activities that some tribal leaders in the area have called on the SDF as well as against ISIS sleeper cells.” According to the excerpted passage from to act against those who carry out illicit activities as well as the Saudi daily al-Sharq al-Awsat, a SDF member threatened an envoy seeking against ISIS sleeper cells. to mediate the clashes in Abu Hammam with “[telling] the Americans to اقتتال بني حلفاء واشنطن يكشف ألغام شرق نهر الفرات :bomb” the home of the suspect involved in the shootout and “saying he was Source in thrall to ISIS.” As the only non-loyalist force to have defeated ISIS on the “Infighting between Washington’s Allies Demonstrates the ‘Landmines’ East of the Euphrates River,” al-Sharq al- Syrian battlefield, the SDF benefits from raising the specter of chaos and an Awsat, 6 May 2018. https://goo.gl/zzSU5w ISIS resurgence in Arab-majority areas under its control. (translation via: http://syrianobserver.com/EN/ The “Arab Council in the Jazeera and Euphrates,” an influential body linked Features/34198/Fighting_Between_U_S_Allies_Reveals_ to the SEF’s parent organization (The Syria’s Tomorrow Movement), issued Mines_East_the_Euphrates) a statement of its own regarding events in Abu Hammam. The statement … many indicators of the likely ethnic, tribal and political makes clear that the group involved is affiliated with the SEF and asks “the complications in the coming stage among Washington’s SDF to clarify the reasons for which it launched an attack on the only Arab allies east of the Euphrates – especially as the US formation east of the Euphrates that is not part of the SDF.” The SDF’s actions, administration searches for measures to fill the vacuum the statement continues, threaten “strife between Arabs and Kurds and further after its forces pull out once the Islamic State (ISIS) is Syrian bloodshed” while also “[opening] the door to many doubts and questions eliminated. The possibility of deploying Arab forces in the regarding malicious intent toward Arabs in their own lands and territory.” The corner between Syria, Turkey and Iraq has been raised… emphasis on ethnic difference should come as no surprise, given that this is one “The following day, one of the Arab notables went and of Syria’s more homogenous Sunni Arab regions. Continued SDF control over delivered the car to the leaders [in the SDF] but one of them nearby oil fields would give this narrative further traction, as the SEF and related threatened the mediator that he would tell the Americans to organizations tout their local roots and magnify the threat of outsider Kurdish bomb Abu Emad’s headquarters, saying he was in thrall to hegemony over the Sunni Arab-majority Euphrates River Valley. ISIS”… The German Press Agency quoted a member of the Arab Local feuds, the legacy of ISIS, control over resources, and ethnic divisions council as saying that “the main reason for the dispute are not the only factors driving potential conflict in this part of Syria. The fourth was that the Kurdish units that control the decision-making accompanying article, from the news site Orient News, argues rejected the presence of any Arab faction in the area that expectations of a reconfigured strategic landscape may be driving the because they comprise a danger for them, especially in light actions of both the SDF and the SEF, whether they be the expectation of Turkish of the Arab tribal members refusing to join the SDF, and deployments along Kurdish-controlled border areas with Syria, expectation of heading toward the Elite Forces in an area where there are a Saudi-led “Arab Force” being deployed to the region, or a combination of the no Kurds at all.” two. End OE Watch Commentary (Winter)

OE Watch | June 2018 10 MIDDLE EAST, NORTH AFRICA Continued: Tensions Between Anti-ISIS Allies in the Euphrates Valley

Source: Source: هل بدأت قسد بتصفية وجود حليفها الجربا في دير الزور؟ املجلس العربي في الجزيرة والفرات يدين إعتداء قسد على قوات النخبة “The Arab Council in the Jazeera and Euphrates Condemns the “Has the SDF Begun to Eliminate the Presence of its Ally Jarba in Deir SDF’s Attack on the Elite Forces,” Tomorrow’s Syria Ezzor?” Orient News, 8 May 2018. https://goo.gl/KHuFze Movement, 4 May 2018. https://goo.gl/ittaVN The SDF’s main fear comes from talk of a “preliminary” agreement … in light of the unfortunate actions of a patrol group made between the US and Turkey for the Turkish Army and Free up of more than 50 members of the SDF, in which they attacked to enter 30 kilometers inside of Syrian territory east of the Euphrates, the home of a members of the Syrian Elite Forces (SEF) on the from the city of Tal Abyad all the way to the border with Iraq. Based on evening of Thursday 5 May in the village of Abu Hammam, this, the SDF hopes to eliminate any Arab formation that may threaten eastern rural Deir Ezzor, requesting that the SEF group hand it… the SDF’s current goal is to control the oil fields of Deir Ezzor over all their weapons, which led to injuries on both sides… without being challenged by local residents, for whom the SEF is the hold the SDF responsible for these dangerous actions that sole military force capable of challenging the SDF… “Jarba has misread threatened strife between Arabs and Kurds and further Syrian the message regarding talk about Arab forces coming to the area. He bloodshed, leaving the Jazeera and Euphrates area open to is trying to pre-empt events by opening a front with the SDF, so that many different possibilities. The Arab Council calls on the the forces that are eventually deployed will side with him and hence he powers on the ground, primarily the and , to will reap the benefits of starting this conflict. It is here that Jarba has halt the danger of what is happening in a region where there are misunderstood the message, since the Arab forces that are to be deployed only Arabs… The Arab Council in the Jazeera and Euphrates would do so based on a decision by the US and should not be expected to strongly condemns this attack and also asks the SDF to clarify clash with the US’s SDF allies… Here we must ask whether Jarba, who the reasons for which it launched an attack on the only Arab is known neither for the clarity of his alliances nor his clear political formation east of the Euphrates that is not part of the SDF, given stances, may use these clashes as a maneuver to bring Arab forces to the that this escalation opens the door to many doubts and questions area and thus gain the lion’s share and put himself in a top position. Or regarding malicious intent toward Arabs in their own lands and is he preparing to be an alternative to the regime in the area based on territory. future alliances made by agreement and coordination with Moscow?”

A Guardian Armored Personnel Carrier of the SDF during the Raqqa offensive (02/17). Source: By Zana Omar [Public domain], https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SDF_Guardian_Armored_Personnel_Carrier_2.png.

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